Aloha, my name is Bonnie I am funding for Christina Chandra and her son Alek. Christina is becoming a birth doula, she works in the medical field and is an asset to the island of Maui. Christina truly has a heart of gold and is an extraordinary woman.

Here is her story.

The morning of the fire, I woke up at 4:30 to the sound of banging. My little 2.5-year-old son, Alek, also woke up, confused and still recovering from being sick. Moments later our power went out. I quickly realized the banging was caused by a crazy windstorm (I hadn’t known about Hurricane Dora). At 7 am we lost cell reception and I had no way of getting any updates on the storm or contacting anyone. We stepped outside and saw power lines down all over the road and our back door blocked by the fence falling on it. Around 5 pm our neighbor knocked on the door. Somehow he had gotten information, and he told me there was a fire coming this way and we needed to evacuate. My heart dropped. I smiled at Alek and told him we were going on an adventure. Within 10 minutes we were out the door. The winds whipped at us, the sky was weirdly gray, and I saw smoke in the air. As we were driving down our road, I noticed a mom and two teen girls standing outside their car looking scared. I asked if they were ok and they said they were trying to evacuate but their car had run out of gas. They jumped in my car and as we drove away we saw the fire, just a mile or two across the road. I was house-sitting for a friend at the time, so I didn’t have a chance to grab anything from my own home. Everything is gone including birth certificates, social security cards, passports, car titles and registrations, sentimental, etc. I even forgot to grab my son's shoes. My house and my friend's home burned to the ground, along with the neighborhood where Alek had daycare and the harbor where his dad worked. I am so hopeful and want to rebuild my life on Maui. I am so overwhelmed with the love across the island. Every little bit of support helps as I am rebuilding everything. Thank you, Christina